Toyota demos HD maps for Tokyo AVs

Toyota's Research Institute-Advanced Development has demonstrated high definition (HD) maps for autonomous vehicles (AVs) for surface roads in Japan with a relative accuracy of less than 50cm.
By Ben Spencer March 31, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
Toyota demos HD maps for AVs for surface roads in Japan (© Rui Baião | Dreamstime.com)

Toyota is hoping to use the results to shorten the delay in updating HD maps for AVs, expand map coverage and reduce maintenance costs.
 
The company collaborated with space infrastructure company Maxar Technologies and IT services provider NTT Data to build the maps using commercial satellite imagery.
 
The demonstration allowed the partners to automatically extract the required map information by analysing, removing and correcting non-map image pixels such as cars and shadows due to the inclination of buildings in satellite imagery. Maps were created within the 23 wards of Tokyo as well as six unnamed cities in the US and Europe.

A collaboration with road intelligence firm Carmera showcased how to make maps using consumer-grade vehicle cameras. Both parties used dashcam drive recorders to detect and place road features such as lane markings, traffic signals and signs within the 23 wards of Tokyo and two unnamed cities in the US state of Michigan.

In a separate initiative, Toyota showed how lane markings necessary for AVs could be updated in near real-time on TomTom's HD map. This was achieved by converting vehicle data into TomTom's cloud-based transactional mapmaking platform, Toyota says.
 
Additionally, Toyota worked with Here Technologies to correct the positional errors in its vehicle data. Here created surface road maps and ingested data into its platform and automatically generated HD maps including lane level information, the company adds.

 

GIS/ Mapping & Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Six easy steps to security
    October 22, 2018
    As security threats become increasingly vast and varied, multinationals are beginning to see the need for an effective global security operations centre to protect their organisation. James I. Chong spells out what is required. You know you need a global security operations centre (GSOC) to support what you’ve built, identify threats, and prevent disasters before they happen - but how do you know if it’s truly effective? There’s no shortage of information coming into operation centres. Too often, it’s the
    Read More
  • Visible road markings: an essential for older drivers and intelligent vehicles
    March 20, 2015
    The RAINVISION project, co-financed by the European Commission, recently held its final meeting. Over the past three years, the project has researched the impact of road markings on driver behaviour under different night weather conditions (dry, wet and wet and rainy) and has assessed how different age groups and gender groups adapt their driving based on the above mentioned conditions. The results of the project were presented and in particular, the outcomes of three different trials conducted over the pro
    Read More
  • Columbia goes intermodal to support sustainability
    April 10, 2014
    David Crawford on the ups and downs of a Latin metropolis. Medellín, Colombia’s second city and a recognised leader in sustainable transport thinking, is rapidly extending its substantial existing investment in modern mobility. It is deploying both an enhanced integrated traffic management array and the country’s first intermodal public transportation management system. The supplier of both, under separate €9 million (US$12.3 million) contracts, is Spanish engineering company Indra, a major exporter
    Read More
  • Kapsch: We need to move quicker towards connectivity
    July 27, 2023
    Connectivity requires a lot of different parties to work together – but it’s the only way to get coverage. Alfredo Escribá, chief technology officer of Kapsch, talks to Adam Hill about the value of ‘orchestrated corridors’
    Read More

Highlighted Content